DIFFERENT TYPES OF GUEST COMPLAINTS IN THE HOTELS

February 14, 2021
Types of guest complaints

There is some occasion where a guest might face issues and problems with hotel services and they may get dissatisfied. It can be of comprehensive range and the most common issue is long waiting time for service, no proper assistance with luggage, the room is not cleaned or arranged properly, forget to give a wake-up call, served cold or raw food, guest request been ignored for additional supplies. Generally, the front office does receive more complaints regarding service-related when the hotel is full occupancy.

Examples of service-related complaints:

  • Ignoring a guest request or delay in guest request for any amenities.
  • Very slow and late food service.
  • Making guests waiting for a long time to speak with someone.
  • Nobody is available at the bell desk to assist the guest.
  • Forget to give wake-up call which been requested by the guest.

2. ATTIDUTINAL COMPLAINTS

Attitudinal complaints are generally related to the behavior and attitude of the hotel staff. Mostly all the hotel’s whether it is 5 star or 3 star they go through an occurrence when a guest does complain about the staff attitude and unprofessional behavior towards them by the staff members of the hotel.

When an employee disagrees and argues with the guest, his dispute with the guest begins which leads to guest complaints. Guest convey attitudinal complaints when they are insulted by unprofessional and rude behavior by the hotel staff members or often guest might overhear staff conversations or who receive complaints from hotel staff members. Therefore, managers and supervisors of the hotel must have good listening skills, knowledge, must be ready to attend and address the guest complaint. This is very crucial especially to maintain good relations with the guest.

Examples of attitudinal complaints:

  • The staff doesn’t give a warm welcome and smile.
  • Rude and unprofessional behavior of F&B staff.
  • The front desk staff was not polite.
  • Staff not showing any keen interest while dealing with guests and lack of knowledge & skills.
  • Guests do feel insulted by the rude behavior of the hotel staff members.

3. MECHANICAL COMPLAINTS

Mechanical complaints are those issues that are related to equipment within the hotel. Most of the time guests complain regarding hotel equipment malfunctions. The most problem occurs related to air conditioning, lighting, room furnishing, electricity,  coffee machines, door keys, plumbing, television, etc. Effective use of engineering logbooks and maintenance work orders assists in reducing the number of mechanical complaints.

Examples of mechanical complaints:

  • The room air conditioner not working properly.
  • Bedroom or bathroom ceiling, bedside lamp or standing lamp bulb fused.
  • TV not working.
  • Hairdryer not functioning properly.
  • Docking station for mobile, laptop or Ipad not working properly.
  • Plumbing Issues.
  • Safe locker not working properly.
  • Hot water or cold water problem in the bathroom.
  • The room key not functioning.
  • Tea kettle not working.
  • Coffee machine not working properly.
  • Room wardrobe not opening properly.

Guest complaints that are related to the room are to be considered room-related complaints. The complaints might be due to what room category booked by the guest is different to what assigned when they arrived, no good view from the room, poor quality mattress or linen, stain in a bedsheet or towels, noisy room, etc. Nowadays guest does book a room through online sources, therefore, has a mindset and expectation that the picture shown while booking a room should be the same as the room they have been given when they arrived.

Many online travel agents (OTA’s) are available online and the truth is that these online travel agents have a distinct kind of hotel image gallery layout that why the guest usually get confused about the room when they do booking online. When a guest arrives at the hotel and check in to the room they notice that the room assigned to them is dissimilar from that they have seen a picture of a room online.

Examples of room related complaints:

  • Poor view from a room
  • What guest booked online differs from the allocated room.
  • Sometimes guests have been downgraded to another lower category due to peak season or non-availability of a room or might have a maintenance issue.
  • Bad smell from the room.
  • Maintenance issues.
  • Poor quality linen and mattress.

5. COMPLAINTS DUE TO FOOD & BEVERAGE

Even the guest has received very good room facilities, the guest may complain about the food & beverage of the hotel if it is not up to their exception. Even though the hotel has provided a remarkable culinary experience to the guests, despite giving your best efforts guests might complain.  There is some guest who has a habit of complaining and some guest who are very hard to please that often leads to intermittent complaint.

Examples of complaints due to food & beverage:

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  • Food is not edible.
  • The food that has been served is not fresh (hard, musty and dry).
  • The quantity of the food is less.
  • Items were missing.
  • Cutlery and crockery is dirty
  • Non-veg food has been delivered to the vegetarian guest.
  • Wrong food has been served
  • Food has been served untidily.
  • Delay in foodservice.
  • Dust particles in food
  • Hair in food.

6. UNUSUAL COMPLAINTS

Unusual complaints are those problems that are not related to the hotel and have no control. The unusual complaints are related to weather, traffic, or transportation. The guest often has an expectation that the hotel might resolve their problem or at least they listen to such complaints which are unusual and the hotel couldn’t resolve those issues and which are not under their control. Occasionally guests demand such thing that is merely impossible to deliver and those complain about bad weather, no swimming pool, lack of public transportation,  etc

Hotels usually have no control over such situations surrounding unusual complaints. Hotel staff must be well prepared especially the front office team to tackle unusual complaints with an appropriate answer to the guest and to avoid a potentially difficult encounter.

Examples of  unusual complaints:

  • The crazy traffic around here.
  • Why so hot and humid in this area?
  • Ridiculous traffic in this town.
  • It’s been raining all day.
  • There is a long queue at pre-paid taxi counter at the airport.
  • It is hard to deal with auto drivers.